ABSTRACT
Many peoples throughout history have gained preeminence in the world through their trade and exchange activities. Among them were the Etruscans, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Chinese, Spaniards, and Portuguese. All of them had a major effect on the flow of goods and distribution of wealth around the world. It has only been since the second-half of the twentieth century that these efforts have been accompanied by a systematic understanding of consumer needs, an organized consideration of customer satisfaction, an analysis of the responsiveness of supply and demand in conjunction with cultural diversity, and by methodological approaches to market entry, expansion and penetration. Thus, it is only for the past two generations that international marketing has emerged as a research discipline. Within this short time span, globalization has enabled international marketing practitioners and thinkers to live up to the claim of the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, who stated “I am a citizen, not of Athens or Greece, but of the world.” We define globalization as “the increase in the frequency and duration of linkages between countries, leading to similarities in activities of individuals, practices of companies, and policies of governments” (Czinkota, 2002). This globalization enables international marketing to take place all around us, and to continuously offer new opportunities and challenges.
